Dragon Age 2

[Treebore]

Bought this a few days ago and I have been forcing, yes FORCING, myself to play this until I couldn't take it anymore at 17th level.

Only real positive thing I can say about this is the new graphics related to terrain is pretty good. Other than that, I have had a lot, and I mean a LOT of problems with the lighting and colors. Its been a challenge to see what is going on, the red color seems to be everywhere.

And the interface changes. Just frickin horrible. They went backwards with this, definitely not forward. The weapon interface, character interface, etc... of the "old" games are much better, in looks, in just plain "coolness". Character relations? I absolutely hate in this game.

Can't believe how horribly disappointed I am with this game. In my eyes, this is in no way a worthy successor to what came before. I complete disappointment for me. To the point where I can no longer even convince myself to continue playing.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I went through the same thing, except I didn't even make it out of the first act. I pre-ordered DA2 because I trusted Bioware; between (recently) ME2 and DA1, how could I not? Regretted buying it almost instantly, and because of it I'm not even sure I'll be buying ME3 or the eventual DA3 let alone pre-ordering them.

 

[horacethegrey]

My brother bought this and hasn't even finished it. So you can include him among the many disappointed. I can understand where they're coming from, but I don't think it's that bad a game. I like the characters and the setting, along with the little nods to the first game. My main gripe was I didn't like the way it ended.

Hoping Bioware gets it's act together when they release Dragon Age III and win back the fans.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I've played through and enjoyed it twice. I agree there are some problems with it, particularly the continually reused terrain tiles. That said, I enjoyed the story and the characterization, and some, though not all, of the system changes from DA:O. From what I gather, the Bioware folks have heard the dissent are may be making some corrections for DA3.

 

[Treebore]

I don't know how you can enjoy this game. I found the "story" far less coherent. I can't even applaud them for the background Codex info since so much of it is a repeat from Origins. The character interaction between the group was childish and reactions felt far more contrary, especially without having the "gifts" option to allow you to smooth any mis-steps over.

Plus you have very little control over what the other characters get, You can control what staves the mages get, and some times I could even give weapons and armor to the other PC's, but most of the time I could only customize everything on "my" character.

Plus I hated the new "skill trees", I much prefer how it is done with the earlier versions, about the only change I did like was rolling opening locks into the attribute rather than a stand alone skill for Rogues. But to totally get rid of the "cool stuff" like making potions, poisons and traps? Or the Runes from Awakenings?

The only changes I wanted were improvement in all graphics, not taking 20 steps backwards like they did with the items interface and character interface was stepping backwards, not forwards, as well. Plus a new story line with as many options and as much depth as we get out of Origins, that is "coherent", that builds on itself and fits together.

When I have to read on line resources to know where the story is going and what all the "developments" add up to, yeah, weak, very ineffective, writing.

I, and all 3 of my kids, are very, very disappointed in this. Heck, all 3 of my kids have decided they aren't even going to waste any of their time playing this, just what they saw watching me play was enough to totally turn them off from this. This game is a total loser with my family.

 

[Krug]

Only got to the second act of DA2, and just can't get into the game. The characters aren't very interesting, not even Hawke, and the first act which consisted of a raise the money quest involving ton of almost random subquests just felt weak.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Well, I guess I'm easily pleased. I recognize the flaws in the game that you mentioned, but they didn't affect my enjoyment of it to he point that I couldn't play it. As I said, though, I get the impression Bioware has heard the complaints and is trying to address it.

 

[drothgery]

Only got to the second act of DA2, and just can't get into the game. The characters aren't very interesting, not even Hawke, and the first act which consisted of a raise the money quest involving ton of almost random subquests just felt weak.

[sblock]You don't need to raise any money in act I. If you don't have enough cash by the time you've advanced the plot enough to move on, you can get the money from a loan shark.[/sblock]

 

[ToddSchumacher]

I love Dragon Age: Origins. Over 700+ hours of playing it, according to my Steam Account. Many Multiple play-throughs. I've never had a game grab me like Origins did.

I'm almost completed an Origins, Awakenings, DA2 run-through. I probably could have finished it today, if I hadn't been working on my D&D campaign.

It's true, DA2 is a flawed game. I think those flaws could be directly be laid at the feet of its short development cycle, which, if memory serves, was only just over a year. So I think I'll cut them a little slack on that. i think what the game is, with that short of dev time, is a very good game. I love the characters, perhaps even a little bit more than Origins. I love the world. The graphics and combat vastly improved, though I kinda wonder at the enemies that explode from getting stabbed by my daggers.

Plus Orgins was stopped and started, with a bunch of other games developed in between. It was an older engine when it launched. The company changed, the industry changed. People have this big nastalgic memory of Baldur's gate, myself included. We'll just have to face the fact that we're just not going to get that from Bioware anymore. That is not the games they make.

But as some others have posted, it seems they are listening. They were truly suprised at how negative some of the fans were about the game, and seem to be putting some of those elements that they took out back in.

I downloaded the new Legends DLC and thought it was Awesome. I'll get the new Felecia Day DLC coming out in a few days and play that. And I'll certainly pre-order and play DA3 when it comes out. Can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[Sutekh]

My Biggest disappoitment was that the player character was only allowed to be human. Demihumans made DA: Origins for me. I found the Dwarves in particular a rich font for plot and story and to not have the ability to get into that in DA2 felt really bad.